CU board member does not want more coal ash exemptions

A City Utilities board member wants the utility to assure the public it will not again seek a legislative exemption if the state rejects its proposed coal ash landfill site.

CU’s general manager says the utility will allow the state to make the final call.

In 2013, the General Assembly passed legislation, later signed by Gov. Jay Nixon, exempting CU from a preliminary site investigation of its proposed coal ash landfill expansion near its existing coal ash landfill.

The legislative action came after the site had been rejected by the Department of Natural Resources because of porous karst topography that could potentially allow ash into the groundwater. That exemption allowed CU, and only CU, to jump to the detailed site investigation phase, though DNR may ultimately still find the site lacking.

At a study session Tuesday, board member Brian Hamburg asked CU general manager Scott Miller for a commitment that an exemption will not be sought if the site is rejected again.

“What I would ask is that we commit to the public that there will be no going to the legislature to overrule the Department of Natural Resources finding if we go through the detailed site investigation and they say thumbs down,” Hamburg said.

Hamburg also said the board was not consulted when CU decided to seek a legislative solution in 2012 and 2013. Miller said he was in touch with the board chairman at the time but acknowledged he had not reached out to everyone.

Miller did not directly address Hamburg’s request for a commitment, but said CU worked with DNR when it wrote the language that was passed into law. He added that as part of an agreement with DNR, the state agency still retains final say over the site and that CU plans to keep the agreement.

Environmental activists have continued to keep pressure on CU, pointing to the harm that would occur if coal ash got into the groundwater. Opponents of the landfill spoke at a Springfield City Council meeting in early June and during a CU board meeting earlier this month.

Roddy Rogers, CU manager of water resources projects, said in June the detailed site investigation process is just beginning and could last years. He said the first phase of the investigation, involving what he called "field recon" — gathering information about the subsurface — will take place over the next year.